During Tuesday’s court session, the first of a two-day sentencing hearing, attorneys read the judge letters written by the politician’s wife Patti and daughter Amy, appealing for leniency in the sentencing.

“Your honor, I ask you humbly with the life of my husband and the childhood of my daughters in your hands, be merciful,” Patti wrote.

Amy wrote: “I need my father. I need him there for my high school graduation. I’ll need him when my heart gets broken.”

Illinois has had six governors charged with crimes during or after their stays in office. Four of them — Otto Kerner Jr., Dan Walker, George H. Ryan and Blagojevich — were convicted. (Len Small and William G. Stratton were acquitted in their respective cases.)